Sharing Pens
by Bluekit5
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke are rival authors; they've constantly have been competing since they were children, and it's no exception now. However, after being tricked into co-authoring a book together by a certain white-haired pervert, they realize that they make a good team. After some prompting by their mutual friend, they also find there's more than rivalry. (boyxboy, lemons)
1. Chapter 1: Coffee and Running Into Dicks

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. **

* * *

Naruto sighed as he pushed away his empty coffee cup and frowned at his laptop screen. Within the two and a half hours he had arrived at the little coffee shop, he had barely managed to write more than ten pages. He lifted up his head and looked around the empty coffee shop. He was the only one there, tucked in a booth in the corner.

"No luck, Naruto?"

Naruto looked to his left to see Sakura, the shop owner, looking at him sympathetically from the counter.

"Unfortunately, no." Naruto closed his laptop. "This case of writer's block is killing me. My deadline for this novel is in six months and I've barely written anything."

Sakura smiled at him. "I'm sure you'll snap out of it, Naruto. You have before."

Naruto smiled in Sakura's direction before getting up. "Thanks, I'll certainly try my best. I need to get going. I'm supposed to have Kiba and Shikamaru over tonight. I'll see you later."

"Tell them I said hi!" Sakura turned her attention away from Naruto as a few customers trickled in.

Naruto nodded and waved. Throwing his coffee cup away, he securely tucked his laptop in its case and throw the strap over his shoulder.

Naruto pulled out his phone and began to text as he walked out of the shop.

One minute he was texting Shikamaru that they could come over in a half an hour and the next he was on the ground.

He slowly blinked as his mind tried to make sense of what happened.

"Watch where you're going, dobe."

Naruto froze as he recognized the voice of the guy that he ran into. There was no way...

He finally looked up at the person- it was none other than Sasuke Uchiha himself.

"You!" he said as he scrambled to his feet.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "Of course it's you of all people I had to run into- quite literally."

Naruto returned Sasuke's glare. "I thought you were supposed to be in England for another year."

"Keeping tabs on me, eh?" Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest and gave Naruto a smug look. "I knew you were obsessed with me in high school, but-"

"I was not obsessed with you! I simply heard about it through Sakura so you can take your big ego and shove it up your ass," Naruto said and picked up his laptop.

Sakura looked over at the mention of her name. "Oh, hey, Sasuke! You didn't tell me you were going to be back in town this early."

Naruto looked from Sasuke to Sakura then back again. "You knew he was coming back and you didn't tell me?"

Sakura softly chuckled. "I know you two don't get along that well so I didn't see the point in telling you. It'd only make you upset."

Naruto scoffed. "Great. This town is so small I'm bound to run into him more often than I'd like."

"I don't want to see you just as much as you don't want to see me," Sasuke said. "Now if you excuse me, I have places to be." He turned away from Naruto and went up to the counter.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "See you later, Sakura." He exited the coffee shop. Kicking at a rock on the sidewalk, he grumbled to himself. "Of course Sasuke's back. This is great, just great."

He took his time walking back to his apartment complex. By the time he got there, Shikamaru and Kiba were already there waiting at his door.

"What took you so long?" Kiba asked as Naruto unlocked the door and let them in.

"I ran into somebody at Sakura's coffee shop," Naruto said and put his laptop down on the kitchen counter.

"Who?" Kiba stretched out on Naruto's couch.

"Sasuke."

"Uchiha?"

"The one and only."

"Why is Sasuke back already? I thought Sakura said he was studying for another year in England," Shikamaru said. He pushed Kiba's legs off one end of the couch and sat down.

"Dunno." Naruto rummaged through his cabinets before producing a cup of instant ramen.

"Did you talk to him?" Kiba said.

"Yeah sort of. He's still the same dick, though. Always thinks he's better than everyone else." Naruto heated up a cup of water and poured it into the cup of ramen.

"I kind of figured that." Kiba grabbed the remote, turning on the tv. "Anyways, forget Sasuke, how's your novel coming along?"

Naruto groaned.

"Not good, eh?" Shikamaru said.

"Nope. I keep getting stuck on this one part and don't know how to get past it," Naruto said between slurps of ramen.

"You'll get past it. You have before."

"That's what Sakura said."

"Take a break and play some videos games with us. Are we going to order pizza?" Kiba got up, grabbing three x-box controllers.

"Hell yeah."

Half an hour later, when the pizza had been ordered and the three were deep into a game of Call of Duty, Naruto's phone rang. He paused the game when he saw it was his agent, Sai.

"Hello?" he said.

"Hello Naruto. It's Sai."

"Hey Sai, what's up?" Naruto held a finger in Shikamaru and Kiba's direction before getting up and going to his bedroom.

"Kadokawa Shoten contacted me this morning."

Naruto sat on his bed and ran a hand through his hair. "What did they want?" Kadokawa Shoten was the publishing house he currently had a book deal with.

"They asked if you were willingly to stop writing your current novel and collaborate with another author they have published before."

Naruto arched an eyebrow. "They want me to collaborate with another author? Why?"

"They believe if you two write a novel together that it will become very successful. They believe you are the best choice," Sai explained.

"Hm, I guess it would give me a break from this insufferable novel. Plus, I've never co-authored a novel before so this should be an experience. Did they say who the other author was?"

"They failed to mention the author's name. They said they still had to get in contact with him. However, they would like your response as soon as possible."

"I'll do it."

"I'll let them know. Talk to you later."

"Thanks, Sai. Bye." Naruto hung up the phone.

He went back out into the living room where Kiba and Shikamaru now had a pizza.

"What was that about?" Kiba asked through a mouthful pizza.

"It was Sai. Instead of working on my current novel, I'm now going to co-author one," Naruto said and snagged a piece of pizza, sitting down on the couch by Kiba.

"Who is the other writer?" Shikamaru said.

"No clue." Naruto picked up his game controller and resumed the game.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "You agreed to write a book with someone without knowing who this person is first?"

"Yeah? I'm sure we'll get along. I get along with everybody!"

"Except Sasuke," Kiba snickered.

"Oh shut up." Naruto reached over and punched Kiba's arm. "There's no way in hell I would ever work with Sasuke. He's such a dick with his superior complex."

"'Superior complex,' that's a big phrase for someone like you, Naruto," Shikamaru said.

"Yeah, where'd you pick that up?" Kiba said before laughing.

"You guys are dicks, too," Naruto said and lunged at Kiba, knocking him off the couch.

Kiba yanked Naruto down with him and the two began to wrestle while Shikamaru paused the game again.

"Morons, are we going to finish the game or what?" he said. Receiving no answer, he shrugged and stretched out on the couch. "This is such a drag."

Once Kiba and Naruto finished their wrestling match, they resumed playing the video game.

"When do you find out who this guy is, Naruto?" Kiba asked without taking his eyes off the tv screen.

"Dunno, I never asked Sai. Hopefully soon," Naruto said. "Enough about me. How's it going with Hinata?"

Kiba faintly blushed. "I don't think she understands I'm trying to flirt with her."

"She's almost as dense as Naruto," Shikamaru said.

"Hey, I'm not-AH!" Naruto cut himself off as he died in Call of Duty. "Kiba, you dick!"

Kiba smirked. "You should have been paying attention."

The three continued playing video games until Shikamaru stood up.

He put down his controller. "I think I'm going to call it a night guys."

Naruto pulled out his phone and looked at the time. "It's only 6:30."

"Yeah, but I have other plans tonight. Sorry." Shikamaru said, shoving his hands in pockets.

Naruto wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Do your plans have anything to do with that one chick you work with?"

"Her name is Temari and maybe..." Shikamaru seemed flustered as he tried to make his get away.

Naruto and Kiba shared a look. Shikamaru _never _got flustered over anything.

Naruto gigged. "Oooh, Shikamaru has a crushhh," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Shut the hell up. I'll see you guys later." Shikamaru quickly exited Naruto's apartment.

"We'll harass him about it later," Naruto added on, "Well, looks like it's just you and me."

"Actually, I should probably get going to," Kiba said.

"Don't tell me you have a hot date too?"

"Sorry, buddy. I also have a lady friend I have plans with."

"Hinata?"

"Yeah, but she thinks we're just hanging out as friends." Kiba made a face.

Naruto groaned. "Why are all my friends finding someone?"

Kiba rolled his eyes and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Dude, you're only 22. You have your whole life to find someone."

"I know, I know."

"I have to be off. I'll see you later." Kiba waved and left.

Naruto pulled out his phone after Kiba left to check his messages.

There was one missed call from Sai. He quickly called him back.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sai. I saw you called me earlier," Naruto said.

"Oh, yes. Kadokawa Shoten got back to me shortly after I called you. They want you to come in tomorrow at noon to further discuss co-authoring a novel."

"That's really short notice, but I can do it. Will you come with me?"

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it tomorrow because I'm meeting with a new client. I'm sure you'll do fine without me, though."

"Alright. I'll call you tomorrow afterwards."

"Okay, bye." Sai hung up.

Naruto laid back on the couch wondering who'd be working with. He hoped it would be someone tolerable.

* * *

Naruto stopped by Sakura's coffee shop and grabbed a cup of coffee. He filled her in on what Sai told him yesterday. She got a strange look in her eyes when he mentioned co-authoring a novel and gave him a sly smile. He dismissed it and went on his way. He took the train into Tokyo, where Kadokawa Shoten's headquarters resided.

Navigating the busy streets of Tokyo, he flagged down a cab. Within a few minutes, he was outside the Kadokawa Shoten building.

When he got inside, he was directed to the 14th floor to Jiraiya's office. Jiraiya was an editor for Kadokawa Shoten that worked with Naruto frequently.

"Naruto, my boy!" Jiraiya stood up to greet Naruto when he walked into Jiraiya's office. "Long time no see." He walked around his desk to engulf Naruto in a hug.

"Jiraiya-sensei!" Naruto smiled widely. "Sai said you wanted to talk to me about this whole co-authoring thing." Naruto sat in the chair adjacent to Jiraiya's.

"Yes. I wanted to make it official." Jiraiya went over to his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. "As we did with your other book deal, we need you to sign this piece of paper. It basically says you agree to have the material by the stated deadline. You know the rest."

Naruto nodded and pulled the sheet of paper towards him. Jiraiya handed him a pen and he signed it. "So who's the other author I'm working with?"

"I already talked to him today. He's agreed as well." Jiraiya paused for a moment to look at his clock on his desk. "You'll meet him in a soon, he should be here any minute. I believe you two have a lot of talent which is why I'm positive that whatever you two come up with will be successful."

"Is there any specific genre or theme we have to write?" Naruto leaned back in his chair.

"No. It's a free-for-all for you two." There was a knock at the door. "Ah, he's here. Come in!"

Naruto turned around to see the mystery person walk in. His eyes widened and he leapt out of his chair, pointing an accusing finger at the person. "You!"

"Just in time, Sasuke," Jiraiya said as he calmly watched Naruto's reaction.

Naruto's heart sank in his chest.

Fuck.

* * *

**A/N: Hello lovely people of the internet! This is my first time writing a yaoi pairing, but I've very excited about it. This story, however, will most likely progress slowly, so we won't get to that smutty goodness until later! **

**I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review with your thoughts. (Constructed criticisms are welcome as well as encouraged. I'd like to make this story as good as it can be.)**

**Thank you for reading! I hope to update this story as often as possible. :)**

**-Bluekit5**


	2. Chapter Two: Literally Sharing Pens

**Disclaimer: All character belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he took in Jiraiya's smug expression. "I knew something fishy was going on when you refused to tell me who I would be working with."

Jiraiya grinned at the two. "I know you two have never gotten along, but I believe you both are immensely talented." He casually waved his hand. "Besides, you two were rivals how long ago? Too long."

Naruto glanced from Sasuke to Jiraiya. His expression softened when he saw his old sensei's huge smile. He looked down at the ground and put his hands in his pockets. "How long would I have to work with him?"

"The deadline is May 31st," Jiraiya said with a grin.

"I can handle that, I guess."

Sasuke glared at Naruto, but said nothing.

Jiraiya clapped his hands once. "I don't think we really need to go over anything else as I've already talked to you both separately. Now go do your magic and call me if you need anything."

Naruto waved to Jiraiya before following Sasuke out. Sasuke walked at a brisk pace and Naruto stayed behind him. He kept his hands in his pockets.

Sasuke looked back at him and slowed down a bit.

"When should we start working?" Naruto asked. "I've never co-authored before so I'm not really sure what to do..."

"Tomorrow at noon. I'm busy today. We can meet at Sakura's coffee shop," Sasuke said.

Naruto slightly frowned at Sasuke's cold tone. "Hey, what Jiraiya said was true. I mean...our rivalry was a while back. Maybe we should let it go."

"You didn't seem to want to let it go yesterday."

"Okay, okay, maybe we _both _were jerks to each other yesterday, but I still think that what Jiraiya said was true." Naruto shrugged as they both stepped into the elevator. "We can put the past behind us to create a fucking awesome book."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You've held onto that vulgar tongue, I see."

Now it was Naruto's turn to roll his eyes. "Whatever, that's besides the point." They both exited the elevator. Naruto stopped in the middle of the lobby. When Sasuke saw Naruto had stopped, he followed suit and stood a few feet away. "We need to make goals to keep on top of things, right? Hm...how about by tomorrow we both come up with a couple of ideas we can use?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said. He looked at the watch on his right wrist. "I need to get going. Remember, meet me at Sakura's coffee shop at noon."

"Yeah," Naruto said and half-heartedly waved in Sasuke's direction as he exited the building and haled for a taxi.

Working with Sasuke was going to be very interesting.

* * *

As soon as Naruto walked into Sakura's the next day, he accusingly pointed a finger in her direction and said, "You knew didn't you?"

Sakura giggled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. "Of course I did. Both you and Sasuke always keep me updated on what's going on in your lives. He told me the day before you did." She turned away from him and began messing with one of coffee machines.

Naruto threw his arms up in exasperation. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

Sakura looked up at him with a smug expression. "If I told you, then you wouldn't have done it."

"You got that right." Naruto plunked down in a seat at the counter, put down his laptop, and leaned his elbows on the counter. Sakura planted herself in front of him and leaned against the counter.

"I assume you did go through with it, though, since you're here."

"Sasuke told you we'd be meeting here today, didn't he?"

Sakura smiled. "He sure did."

Naruto groaned.

"If you really don't want to work with him, then why did you agree?"

"Jiraiya," was all Naruto had to say before Sakura immediately understood. Jiraiya used to work at their high school before he took a position as an editor for Kadokawa Shoten. He, who at the time was a budding novelist, had taken Naruto under his wing and helped him become the author he was. Naruto looked up to Jiraiya and adored him, finding it hard to say no to him.

"You'll be fine. Sasuke's not that bad at all once you get past all his layers."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Sure."

Sakura pushed a cup of coffee Naruto's way. She looked up at the door bell dinged. "Speaking of the devil."

Naruto turned around to see Sasuke walk in. Sasuke, who was always dressed nicely, was surprisingly wearing a hoodie and regular jeans. For a minute, Naruto admired how good Sasuke looked in street clothes, but shaking his head at the mere thought. _Sasuke may be attractive, but he's also a dick, _Naruto commented to himself.

Sasuke sat down next to Naruto and gently put two notebooks and a few black pens on the counter.

A few customers trickled in after him and Sakura straightened herself up to attend to them, but not before placing a cup of tea in front of Sasuke.

"Chai?" He asked.

"Your favorite," Sakura replied with a smile before hurrying over to the line queuing behind the cash register.

"Thanks," Sasuke said and took a sip.

Naruto eyed the notebooks and pens. "Okay, let's get straight to business. I was only able to come up with two ideas." He softly chuckled. "I would have been able to come up with more, but Kiba and Shikamaru wouldn't stop bugging me last night." Naruto opened his laptop and opened a word document.

"You still hang around Kiba?" Sasuke asked as he looked over Naruto's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Getting ready to write down our ideas so we can figure out what we're going to do." Naruto raised an eyebrow at Sasuke, as if asking if he was stupid or something.

"I don't type anything out until the story is completely finished," Sasuke deadpanned.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I just type everything out and then go through it later..."

Sasuke opened one of the notebooks and grabbed a pen. "I can't think while staring at a blank screen. It'd be easier to just write everything by hand then edit it as we type it."

"I'm better with computers. It'll be way easier and less of a hassle to keep track of papers."

"I'm good with computers, too, but that's not that way my brain thinks. Just trust me on this one. It's easier."

Naruto grumbled. "It may be easier for you, but what about me?"

"You'll be fine. Seriously, the only way I write is by hand."

"What's the difference? Come one, Sasuke, we haven't even shared our ideas yet."

Sasuke gave him a firm look. "I think we should write everything by hand first."

"Still stubborn as ever." Naruto scoffed.

"Stubborn as hell, you mean."

"Now who has the vulgar tongue?"

"Shut up. Are going to do things my way or are we going to keep arguing?"

Naruto groaned. "Fine, you'll do things your way. But only because we need to get started."

Sasuke had a smug look on his face as he closed Naruto's laptop for him and pushed a pen his way. "What did you come up with last night?"

"I only came up with basic plot ideas." Naruto took the notebook from Sasuke and began scribbling down his idea. "One of them is set in another world and revolves around an ex-soldier who is recruited by a group of assassins to kill the current king."

Sasuke pulled the notebook back towards him and read-or at least triedto- what Naruto had written. "Hm. Now I see why you type out your stories."

"Does this mean we'll write my way?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"No." Sasuke scanned over what Naruto had written again.

"What do you think of the idea?"

"Not my style, but I think we could work with it."

"Not your style?" Naruto scratched the top of his head. "Come to think of it, what is your style? I've never read any of your books so..."

"I mainly write romantic novels."

Naruto nearly fell off his chair then and there. "R-romantic novels?"

Sasuke's face turned a faint pink. "Yeah, is there anything wrong with that?"

This time Naruto did fall off his chair-laughing. He clutched his sides as tears streamed down his face. "Y-you," he said between wheezes of laughter, "S-Sasuke, the cold dick in high school, write _romantic _stories?! Oh god, this is great! Wait till Kiba and Shikamaru hear about this!" Naruto's laughter had subdued and he wiped his face off with the sleeve of his jacket and got up.

Sasuke's face had turned hard and Sakura was looking on from the other side of the shop, concerned. "Let's hear about your style then, Naruto," Sasuke said with so much venom dripping from his words it could kill someone three times over. He knew it was surprising that he of all people wrote romantic stories(especially someone who claimed to have no interest in that "romantic bullshit" in high school), but to have someone laugh at him for it was infuriating. God damn it, his novels were fairly popular and he wasn't going to be ashamed of it.

Naruto immediately knew he had hit sore spot. "Sorry about that," he said. "I didn't mean to laugh, it's just...er..."

"Surprising," Sasuke finished his sentence. His face had slightly softened, but he was still angry.

"Yeah, surprising." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "As for my style, I really write anything and everything. How about we hear one of your ideas?"

Sasuke gave him a blank look. "I'm not so sure I want to share it with you since you might laugh."

Naruto sincerely stuck up his pinky. "I pinky promise I won't."

Sasuke stared at Naruto's pinky and let out a quiet sigh. "While I was in England, I came up with a couple ideas that I have yet to use. One of them is love story-" he paused to glance at Naruto and continued when he saw Naruto was listening intently, "involving a girl studying abroad in London and a local Uni student meeting in a hidden tea shop."

"I could work with that," Naruto said with a grin. "I have no fucking idea how to write romance, but hey, I'll give it a try."

For a few more hours, the two shared ideas and scribbled in the notebook. To both of their surprise, they didn't fight, only exchanging insults every once in a while when deemed 'necessary.'

They settled on Sasuke's tea shop idea after plotting out what could possibly happen. Naruto agreed because he had never written anything solely romantic and it would be an "experience" as he put it. However, they quickly came to a disagreement on what _type _of romance it was to be.

"I think a romantic comedy would be best," Naruto said. "Everyone loves comedy!"

"Everyone nowadays goes for angst romance novels. 50 Shades of Grey ring a bell?" Sasuke said.

Naruto covered his ears. "Ugh, don't even mention that book in front of me!"

"My point is more people like angst romance."

"Is that what you write?" Naruto removed his hands from his ears.

"Yeah and girls eat it up, but that's besides the point. Comedy would be too difficult to write together; I think we both can agree that we have varying senses of humor."

"Yeah, I guess you're right on that." Naruto chewed his lip in thought; he didn't like the fact Sasuke had a point.

Sasuke watched Naruto bite his lip and strangely found it attractive. Wait, no. Naruto, attractive? Sasuke quickly shook that thought out of his head. He needed to focus on the topic at hand.

"I guess we can try the idea out to see how it goes," Naruto said, snapping Sasuke out of his thoughts.

"Okay." Sasuke looked at his watch. "It's nearly 6pm, I think we better call it a day. Sakura's supposed to close soon."

"Okay. Wanna meet up here again around the same time?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Sasuke collected his notebooks and pens. Are we still going to set up goals for each day?"

"Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea. For tomorrow we should come up with possible character names and go from there."

"Alright,."

"See you later," Naruto called over his shoulder as he and Sasuke went their separate ways.

* * *

Once Naruto got home, he collapsed on the couch. Today had gone far better than he originally thought. Perhaps the two had out grown their quarreling-for-the-hell-of-it days.

Throwing an arm over his head, Naruto smiled. Maybe working with Sasuke wouldn't be so bad at all. Although he hadn't changed that much since Naruto last saw him, there seemed to be something different about Sasuke. Naruto couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it didn't bother him too much.

His phone suddenly rang, startling him. Digging it out of his pocket, he saw Kiba was calling. "Hello?"

"Yo, Shikamaru and I are on our way over. Just wanted to call you and warn you ahead of time," Kiba said.

"Kiiiba," Naruto drew out his name. "It's Sunday night and I'm tired. Don't you two have work in the morning?"

"Yup, but that's not stopping us. See you soon." Kiba hung up.

Naruto sat up. He loved his friends to death, but sometimes they were a pain in the ass. A few minutes later, there was a knock on his door.

"It's unlocked!" he called and stood up. Kiba and Shikamaru entered. Kiba was smirking as he helped himself to Naruto's food almost immediately.

"How was working with Sasuke today?" he asked.

"How did you know I was meeting up with Sasuke today?" Naruto said, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. "I never mentioned it to you."

"Sakura told Ino and Ino told us," Shikamaru said as he sat down on the couch.

"Ugh, that pink-haired loud mouth can't keep her mouth shut, can she?" Naruto said although he wasn't upset about it. He really couldn't care less.

"Nope and neither can Ino. So how did it go?" Kiba said through a mouthful of chips.

"He isn't that bad to work with at all; he's actually pretty easy to work with. We didn't really argue that much. A lot got done." Shikamaru and Kiba exchanged looks. Naruto glanced from one to the other. "What? Why are you guys looking at each other like that?"

Kiba snickered. "Nothing, nothing."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What are you laughing about?"

"Forget it," Kiba changed the subject, "Did you know that Shikamaru is officially dating that Temari chick?"

Naruto instantly forgot what he was trying to get out of Kiba and turned to Shikamaru. "You are?"

Shikamaru awkwardly nodded. "Yeah."

"Good for you man." Naruto playfully punched Shikamaru's shoulder. "How's it going with Hinata?"

Kiba grumbled. "How do you think it's going? I swear she has to be related to you somehow; she's so _dense. _I can't tell whether she's picking up my hints or not."

"Then you'll just had to be straightforward," Shikamaru commented with a shrug.

"I feel like a bunch of school girls gossiping," Naruto said as he sat down on the other end of the couch.

"That's because we are," Kiba said. "While we're on the topic of our love lives, let's hear about yours, Naruto."

"Yep, we're definitely a bunch of school girls gossiping." Naruto ran a hand through his hair. "I currently don't have one as you both know already."

"Bro, don't worry. Your chances of finding someone is twice as high since you like the ladies _and _the guys." Kiba perched himself on the back of the couch and ruffled Naruto's hair.

"Like I need your advice." Naruto swatted at Kiba's hand. "All the ladies and guys want some of this." He seductively- or at least tried to- motioned towards his body and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

It was easy for Naruto to joke about his non-existent love life because he didn't care that much. However, of course he yearned for some type of relationship. (Don't we all?) He wanted someone he could affectionate and silly with. He wanted company. Despite all the friends he had, he still felt lonely from time to time. It'd simply be nice to have someone.

Naruto looked from Shikamaru to Kiba. These idiots would have to do for now.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

**It'd be lovely if you left a review with you thoughts, concerns, questions, anything! I appreciate each and every review. :)**

**The next chapter will be more exciting, I promise, and possibly have a little more SasuNaru action. ;) **

**Once again, thank you so much for reading!**

**-Bluekit**


	3. Chapter 3: Denial is the Way to Go

**Chapter Three: Denial is the Way to Go**

**Disclaimer: All character belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This still doesn't stop me from wishing I owned them so I could make SasuNaru canon. *deep sigh***

**Also, shoutout to everyone who left a review. You guys are rad and I love you. **

* * *

Two weeks had passed since Naruto and Sasuke began to write their story in Sakura's coffee shop. Everything had been going smoothly-much to everyone's surprise. Of course Naruto and Sasuke still threw insults at each other and would sometimes get into it, but not as often as they used to in high school. Their story was coming along nicely; although, Naruto had a hard time writing all that "mushy love crap" and left it up to Sasuke to work it out.

It still was slightly funny to Naruto that Sasuke wrote romance.

"I never pegged you as the romantic type," Naruto commented to Sasuke one day as he watched him write.

Sasuke passed the notebook to the blond. "No one does."

Naruto read what Sasuke wrote, crossed out a few parts, and rewrote them in the margins. "It's weird to think about."

"Hm? And why is that?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Naruto looked up at Sasuke. "For one, in high school you always claimed that the whole romance thing was bullshit. Besides, you just don't seem like the type." He paused. "Wait, scratch that. You do seem like the romance type, but the douchebag kind."

Sasuke's eye twitched. "Douchebag kind?" he repeated.

Naruto slyly smiled. "Yeah, the kind that has the girls chasing after him, and some guys too, and always uses the girls and-" he was cut off.

"Apparently, you've concluded wrong." Sasuke's tone was deadly, but quiet. The shop was quite busy that day, and although the two were tucked into a booth in the back, Sasuke did not dare raise his voice and attract attention.

"Whoops, sorry, I guess I never got to know Mr. I-Keep-To-Myself-Because-I-Hate-People-In-General," Naruto said while shrugging. "I was just kidding so chill out."

Sasuke said nothing more and took the notebook. He began to write while Naruto watched.

Naruto slumped forward, crossing his arms on the table, and leaning his head on them. He was simply kidding. Though, what he said about not knowing Sasuke was true. Despite the fact that they had known each other since they were both toddlers, he never really _knew_ much about Sasuke. In fact, no one except Sakura knew much about him. Sasuke was a closed book.

After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke passed the notebook to Naruto. He quickly scanned what the raven had wrote. Sasuke had written a fight scene between their main character, Hinami, and her parents. "Hm, so you're an emotional writer, huh?"

Sasuke gave him a confused look. "Emotional writer? Is that another insult?"

"No no, it's not an insult," Naruto said and waved his hands frantically, not wanting to egg him on even more. "I mean, an emotional writer as in someone who writes based off their mood. Like right now you were angry with me so you made Hinami get into a fight in the story."

Sasuke slowly blinked. "I don't even think that's a real thing. I still want to take that as an insult, though."

Naruto deadpanned. "If you want to get insulted so badly, I could always comment on your duck butt hair."

"Why does everyone call it that?" Sasuke muttered and ran a hand through his hair.

Naruto giggled. "Because that's what it looks like."

"Shut up."

The two stopped their bantering and resumed quietly writing. Sakura stopped by a few times to check on them and to refill their coffee and tea. They continued writing until it started getting darker out.

Naruto looked out one of the shop's big windows and frowned. As winter as fast approaching, the days got shorter and shorter while getting darker earlier and earlier. It wasn't pleasant walking home in the dark.

"Hey, Sasuke, do you mind if we wrap this up?" Naruto said as casually as he could.

Sasuke glanced down at his watch. "It's only 4:30. We can squeeze in another hour, can't we?"

Naruto awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I really need to get going. I'd rather not have to walk home in the dark, ya know?"

"You don't have a car?"

"Nope. What's the point when everything in Konohagakure is within walking distance?"

Sasuke let out a sigh. "Sure. Whatever." He gathered the notebooks and pens, carefully setting them in his bag. He stood up, threw the bag over his shoulder, and left money for the tea. "Same time tomorrow, right?"

"Actuallllly," Naruto drew out the word. "I was thinking that since we've been working so hard on the story, that we could take a day off..." He sheepishly grinned.

To Naruto's surprise, Sasuke nodded in agreement. "We have been developing the story pretty well, so a day off won't throw us off track."

"Yeah. Besides we have till May to get it finished and it's only November," Naruto added.

"Good. I'll text you later about when we should meet up again to write." Sasuke picked up his jacket and nodded in Naruto's direction before heading out.

Naruto lingered around for a few minutes, staring at the slowly darkening sky. If he wanted to leave before it was completely dark out, he needed to hurry. Grabbing his jacket, he paused to say goodbye to Sakura.

"Thanks for having us again, Sakura!" he called out as she emerged from the back of the kitchen followed by a black-haired man with a bowl cut. "Oh, Lee, right?"

"That is I, Rock Lee," Lee said and saluted Naruto. "And you are Naruto. Sakura is showing me around since I am her new employee."

Sakura turned to Lee. "Lee, can you clear some of the empty tables? Give me a moment, I need to speak with Naruto."

"Of course, Sakura!" Lee rushed away and began to diligently work.

"He's energetic," Naruto commented. He turned to face Sakura. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Will you be okay?" Sakura asked quietly, casting a worried look at the darkening sky. "I mean, last time was kind of a mess. You can stay over or have Kiba or Shikamaru pick you up."

Naruto laughed. "Don't worry about me I'll be fine. I have plenty of time to get home before it gets completely dark."

Sakura pushed her bangs out of her face. "You said that last time, but then panicked when you realized you wouldn't. I just want to make sure you'll be okay."

Naruto playfully ruffled Sakura's hair. "I told you I'll be fine. It's about time I've gotten rid of my fear of the dark."

Sakura gave him a concerned look. "You said that last time, too."

"Seriously, I'm fine. Don't worry. I need to be heading out now or else I really will be in trouble. Bye!" Naruto slipped into his jacket and waved at both Sakura and Lee. He stepped out of the warm, cozy coffee shop and into the cooling night air. There was still enough light for him to make it home in time.

His steps were quick and nearly silent. Not many people were out- not like there were many people in the small town to began with. Nearly everything was within walking distance so Naruto saw no need to invest in a car. However, as the sky gradually inched closer and closer to being completely and utterly dark, he wished he had.

He began to feel hot even though the air was chilly. Swallowing hard, his pace quickened. Though, the darkness seemed to be gaining on him.

Trying not to freak out, Naruto focused on his breathing _not _the memories of that night. He thought about how he would have a nice cup of ramen when he got home or how he could take a relaxing shower. He tried to completely avoid that area of memories.

The funny thing about trying to forget certain things, is that the more you try to forget, the more you remember.

It was like the scene of that night was replaying over in his head. All he could see was pure darkness and all he heard were his mother and father's voices, low and panicked. Then nothing.

Shaking his heard vigorously, he got rid of the memory. Luckily, he had made it into his apartment complex. He was relieved when he stepped out of the dark streets, for the town only had a few street lights, and into the harsh, artificial light of the lobby. _That was close, _he thought as he greeted the doorman and went into the elevator.

It was ugly the last time he had an intense flashback. He had been walking home, like today, and it had gotten nearly pitch black dark after the moon was blocked out by clouds. He had called Sakura in a full out panic and she ended up finding him and picking him up.

His phone buzzed as he was unlocking his apartment. It was Sakura.

**_Hey, did you make it home okay?_**

Naruto closed the door, flipped on the light, and typed out a reply.

_Yeah, I'm good. Thanks. _Walking into his bedroom, he set his phone on his night table and slipped into an t-shirt and pair of shorts. Laying down in the middle of his bed, he covered his eyes with one arm and sighed. His near-freak out had unsettled him and left him exhausted. He rolled over onto his stomach, shoving his face into a pillow. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard his phone buzzing. He debated leaving it, but curiosity got the best of him and he got up to get it.

Expecting it to be Sakura again, he was surprised to see it was a text from Sasuke.

**_Hey, dobe. Will you be able to meet at the coffee shop on Tuesday at our usual time? I have stuff going on Monday._**

Naruto quickly replied.

_Yeah, teme. Whatcha got going on Monday?_

**I thought I told you to stop calling me that. I have family stuff going on.**

_I'll stop calling you teme when you stop calling me dobe. _For as long as Naruto could remember, they always referred to each other as teme and dobe.

**Whatever. See you Tuesday.**

Naruto put his phone down and crawled back into bed. Not having to do anything till Tuesday? Sounded great to him.

A part of him was a little sad that he had to wait until Tuesday to work on the story. Sasuke took the notebook after every writing session, but Naruto didn't mind that much.

Another part of him was also a little sad he had to wait until Tuesday to see Sasuke. Over the past few weeks they've worked together, Naruto began to enjoy spending time with Sasuke. Although he would never admit it to himself let alone anyone else, he found himself oddly attracted to Sasuke. He noticed the little things that Sasuke did while writing- tugging on the ends of his bangs, biting his lip. Naruto wrinkled his nose at his thoughts.

_Not that I care! _He thought. _It's just nice to write with him and not bicker as much. That's all. Nothing more. Nope. We're just fellow authors. _

Denial was his best weapon after all.

* * *

Sasuke sent the text to Naruto before hopping in the shower. It had been a successful day for the two. They had written more than they usually did and he felt satisfied. He had to admit working with Naruto wasn't as much as a pain as he initially thought. Naruto was still annoying, not doubt about that, but working with him was actually bearable. In fact(Sasuke cringed at the fact he was admitting this to himself) it was some what enjoyable. At least, when Naruto wasn't acting a like dumbass or insulting him.

Sasuke quickly cleaned himself off and got out. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked in the foggy mirror. _Does my hair really look like a duck's ass? _Shaking his head, he slipped on a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants.

He walked back into his bedroom and checked his phone. A calendar notification popped up, reminding him he was having lunch with Itachi on Monday. He'd rather work on the novel since he and Naruto were making good progress, but he rarely ever saw his elder brother so he accepted Itachi's invitation.

Sliding under the bed covers, he rolled onto his side and closed his eyes, almost instantly asleep.

* * *

Sakura smiled as she set down a cup of coffee in front of the long, black-haired man. "Good to see you back in town, Itachi! What's the occasion?"

Itachi returned her smile and cradled the cup in his hands. "I requested the next two days off to spend a little time with Sasuke. I figure he's a bit lonely after moving back here."

Sakura smile her famous all-knowing-smile. "Hm, I wouldn't say he's that lonely."

"Oh? Does he have a love interest that he's failed to mention to me?" Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"Er, not exactly. Didn't he tell you?" Sakura folded her arms across her chest. "He's co-authoring a book with Naruto Uzumaki. They've been spending a lot of time together writing."

"Another thing he's failed to mention to me. I'll bring it up at lunch tomorrow." Itachi took another small sip of his coffee. "Have a seat, Sakura. Surely you can take a five minute break."

"Sure. Hinata will be able to handle things and look after Lee for a few minutes." She winced when she heard a clatter and Lee's loud voice apologizing. "Hopefully."

"How's Sasuke settling in? I know you two are close."

"Pretty well, actually. He and Naruto come here a lot to write."

"Naruto and Sasuke..."

Sakura nodded. "Surprising, right?"

"Indeed," Itachi agreed.

The two chatted for a while before Itachi headed out. He was glad to hear Sasuke was settling in wasn't isolating himself like he did back in Tokyo.

Konohagakure was just what Sasuke needed.

* * *

Monday passed by slowly for Naruto, who stayed at home and did nothing. He debated whether asking Kiba and Shikamaru if they wanted to come over, but remembered they both had work.

That was the benefit of being a successful author. He got to choose his own hours. He could take a unlimited amount of days off whenever he wanted.

However, it seemed more recently, Sasuke had been deciding his hours. Sasuke was the one who set the time and days they would work on the story- Mondays-Saturdays, and sometimes Sundays, from noon to whenever they deemed they had done enough work for the day. In fact, now that Naruto thought about it, Sasuke had been the one calling the shots.

_That bastard, _Naruto thought, _We're co-authors! I should get to make important decisions, too! On Tuesday I'll be more assertive and firm. Yeah, that'll show him. _

Well, Naruto _tried _to be these two things when Tuesday rolled around. Every time Sasuke suggested something for the novel, Naruto would either disagree or say he had a better idea.

"Why are you being so difficult to work with today?" Sasuke said and rolled his eyes. "We haven't gotten anything productive done the entire time we've been here. What's your problem?"

"My problem is that you're calling all the shots!" Naruto crossed his arms and jutted out his chin. "I'm being more assertive now." _Way to go! That'll show him__, _he encouraged himself.

"I haven't been calling all the shots. If you have a problem with anything I suggest, like you have all day, you can tell me. We're co-authors."

Naruto scrunched up his nose. "Fine then, I will."

Sasuke rubbed his temples and sighed. "We've wasted an entire day due to your immaturity."

"I was not being immature," Naruto protested. "I told you, I was simply trying to be assertive, that's all."

"Okay, whatever. It doesn't change the fact we've wasted an entire day. Besides, we seem to be in a rut."

Naruto frowned. Sasuke was right. No matter what they did, they couldn't move the story further along. It was stuck.

Sasuke tugged on the ends of his hair with one hand and twirled a pen in his other as he stared at the notebook. Frustrated, he let the pen fall from his fingers and roll across the table.

Naruto watched as Sasuke bit his lip. _He looks attractive doing that...wait, what? _His cheeks turned a faint red and he nearly smacked his head against the table. _No Naruto, _he scolded himself. _You are not allowed to think stuff like that...at least not here. Later, at home. Wait, that sounds wrong!_

He realized that as he was having his on little conversation inside his head, Sasuke had looked up from the notebook and was now looking at him.

"You okay there, dobe?"

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts, his face turned redder. "What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Totally. Great. Super, actually."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the blond's rambling, but chose not to comment on it. "Hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow."

"Yeah," Naruto said, still feeling a bit flustered. He looked out one of the windows to see it was already dark. They had been so consumed in their writing and bickering that they hadn't even noticed the time.

Sasuke saw Naruto's face grow a little pale when he looked outside. "Dobe, are you getting sick on me?"

"What? No," Naruto replied after a small pause. "I'll see you later, I need to talk to Sakura real quick." He stood up and looked around for the pink-haired woman.

Sasuke studied Naruto. His body had gone rigid and his face showed he was tense despite his attempts to hide it. "Seriously, are you getting sick? We've been working basically nonstop."

Naruto forced out a short-lived laugh. "I promise I'm not getting sick." Once he spotted Sakura coming out from the back, he nearly raced over to her, tightly clutching his jacket.

Sasuke watched the two interact from the booth he and Naruto had claimed as their work space every day. Sakura had glanced out the windows as soon as Naruto went up to her and nodded at whatever he was saying. She laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, smiling at him.

Sasuke's eyes followed Naruto as he disappeared into the back of the shop. His eyes met Sakura's and he stood up. Grabbing his things, he walked over to her.

"What's wrong with Naruto?" he asked.

Sakura nervously smiled. "Erm, he wasn't feeling to great. He's going to chill out upstairs for a while."

"I knew that dobe was getting sick," Sasuke muttered.

"I'm sure he'll be fine in a bit!" Sakura's cheeriness was forced and they both knew that. She clasped her hands behind her back. "I'll make sure he gets home fine. Have a safe trip home."

"Yeah, thanks. See you later." Sasuke suspiciously eyed Sakura up and down before leaving.

As he drove home, all he could think about was Naruto and Sakura's suspicious behavior. Why was Naruto acting so strange and what was Sakura trying to cover for him?

He planned on interrogating the blond about it soon. Nothing got past Sasuke.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Please leave a review with you thoughts! I'd love to know what you guys think so far. What did you like/hate? What could be changed to make it better? What was your favorite part? Seriously though, it makes my day when you guys review. Every time I see a notification for FanFiction in my inbox, I get butterflies because I'm so excited. (wow that's super cheesy.)**

**Fun fact of the day: I wrote this entire chapter while listening to EXO and BTS. K-pop is my new obsession. Woo.**

**Thanks so much for reading, darlings! (That shall be my new nickname for you guys. Hope you don't mind.)**

**-Bluekit5**


	4. Chapter 4: Taking Him Home Already?

**Chapter 4: Taking Him Home Already?**

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. *cries* **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, or put this story as one of their favorites! It seriously makes my day to open up my email and see a bunch of FanFiction notifications. :)**

* * *

December was upon them already.

Although the deadline for their book wasn't until May, Sasuke was slightly freaking out. They were currently stuck in a rut. The story line was going no where and neither man had any idea on how to progress it.

"Ugh," Sasuke groaned and slumped down in his seat. A pen lay motionless in his hand, the ever so blank page staring at him. "I don't know what to write."

Naruto found it quite amusing to see Sasuke come undone for once. However, he did not find the circumstances Sasuke was coming undone for amusing.

"Gimme it," Naruto said pulling the notebook towards him and the pen out of Sasuke's hand. He put the pen to the paper, but nothing happened. Chewing his bottom lip, he flipped through at they already written. Damn, they really were stuck. "I have no fucking idea what to do."

Sasuke licked his lips. "Neither do I. I'm not really sure where to go from here."

"Maybe we should ask Sakura to look it over for us and see what she thinks," Naruto suggested.

"No. I don't share my work with anyone before it's published," Sasuke said and pulled the notebook back toward him.

"First of all," Naruto held up a finger, "o_ur _work. Second of all, I always have Sakura look over my writing. She gives helpful feedback."

"Fine, we'll have her look at it later. Sakura isn't even here right now."

Naruto looked around the shop. "She isn't? Huh, guess I didn't notice." He saw Lee and a blonde-haired woman he hadn't seen before behind the counter.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but didn't comment on it. "Focus, dobe. We need to figure out what the hell we're going to do."

"I don't know." Naruto shrugged.

Sasuke sighed. "Well, that's not going to write a story, is it?" He glanced at the watch on his wrist. He was about to say something when Lee approached their table.

"Good afternoon Naruto, Sasuke," Lee greeted with a huge grin.

"Hey, Lee, what's up?" Naruto said and smiled back.

"Since Sakura is gone today on personal business, she asked that we close the shop early. I hope you don't mind that we are asking you to leave."

"Not at all. Tell Sakura I said hi when she gets back." Naruto stood up and stretched, his hoodie slightly riding up to reveal his stomach.

It took everything ounce of Sasuke's will power not to openly stare at Naruto. Damn, he knew Naruto was fit, but he didn't know the blonde was that fit. Quickly adverting his eyes before anyone noticed where they had been, he also stood up, grabbing the notebook. _Control yourself. It's not like you haven't seen a stomach before. _

"It's only 1:30," he said after glancing at his watch again. "We could go somewhere else to work on the story."

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. I'm cool with whatever."

"Are you okay going back to my place?"

"Er, sure," Naruto said and shoved his hands in his pockets. "As long as you can drive me home."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You really ought to get a car."

"So it that a yes?"

"Yes." Sasuke led the way to his car and they got in.

Sasuke lived on in the center of the town in a fancier apartment complex.

"Of course you'd rent one of the most expensive apartments in town," Naruto commented as they pulled up to Sasuke's apartment complex.

"Would you expect less of me?"

"Guess not."

If the outside of the complex said anything about Sasuke's wealth, the inside was made it seem like Sasuke showered in money.

"Damn," Naruto said as Sasuke led him inside the apartment and flipped on a few lights. "I knew that you were loaded, but I didn't know you were _this _loaded."

Sasuke's apartment had a sleek, modern look to it. The living room has black leather couches, a huge tv display, and the wall were painted a dark blue. On the walls hung a few, big paintings.

"Are you done gawking yet?" Sasuke slipped past Naruto and further into the room. "Want anything to drink?"

"Sure." Naruto followed Sasuke into the kitchen, which was just as elegant as the living room.

Grabbing a bottle of water for both of them, Sasuke set them on the island counter in the middle of the room and pulled up two stools. "We really need to get past this rut." He set the notebook on the counter and opened it to where they last left off. The page was full of crossed out words and sentences.

Naruto nodded in agreement and sat down. "Maybe if we could had Hinami run into Jimin later along rather than right away..." He slid the notebook over and began to write.

Instead of watching what Naruto wrote as he usually did, Sasuke found himself looking at the blonde's face. Naruto's tongue poked out in concentration and he scrunched his face up.

Realizing that Naruto could look up any minute to see that Sasuke was awkwardly staring at him, Sasuke dropped his eyes down to what Naruto was writing. "Let me see," he said and gently tugged on the notebook. He squinted at the page, Naruto's handwriting nearly illegible. "I can barely read this, dobe."

"Hey!" Naruto protested. "I'm on a roll." He pulled the notebook back.

Sasuke watched him for a while before pulling the notebook away Naruto, taking the pen out of his hand, and started adding on to what Naruto wrote.

They did this for while at a slow pace as they tried to work around the rut.

"I think we managed to get out of that rut," Naruto said smiling down at what they had written. Sasuke's lips twitched at the blonde's stupid grin.

"Yeah. We should keep on it to get as much written as possible," Sasuke said.

"I think we should take a break." Naruto looked out the kitchen window. The sky was gradually darkening; Naruto wanted to get home before it was completely dark.

"We'll lose our momentum if we do." Sasuke had begun to write again, his pen rapidly moving over the paper.

Naruto dramatically sighed, but didn't argue. Folding his arms on the counter, he rested his head on them, titling his head slightly to watch Sasuke. Sasuke's handwriting was neat and big unlike Naruto's. Naruto's eyes wandered from the notebook to Sasuke.

It had been two months since the two of them had started writing the novel together and they had surprisingly formed an acquaintance-relationship of some sorts. Naruto didn't dare call Sasuke a friend. At least, not yet

_There's a possibility we could be friends, _Naruto thought. _We have been getting along pretty well considering how often we used to argue in high school. _

It was no secret that the two hated each other in high school. Sasuke found Naruto too laid back, annoying, and a general nuisance; on the other hand, Naruto found Sasuke too uptight, cocky, and dickish. (Naruto didn't even know if that was a word, but he often used it to describe Sasuke.)

The only things they had in common back in high school was their love for writing and Sakura. Said girl was close friends with both men throughout high school and found their rivalry absolutely hilarious.

"One day, you two are going to be good friends," she would tell them. When they would refute that, listing reasons why they would never get along with the other ad claiming their undying hatred for each other, she would just laugh and say, "You just wait."

_Hm, maybe Sakura was right...Now...now he's bearable. Tolerable even._ Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts when the notebook was passed to him.

"Hey, look at what I wrote instead of me, dobe," Sasuke said, a smirk fighting its way to his lips.

Naruto realized while he in thought, he was openly gawking at Sasuke. "Sorry, spacing out," he mumbled and grabbed the notebook. He took the pen and scratched out a few lines, and rewrote them in the margins.

"Hey, I liked that line," Sasuke said as he intently watched what Naruto was writing.

"It was a bit of meh line," Naruto said, "Hinami would never say that anyways."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do."

Sasuke fell silent for a moment or two. "Perhaps we should take a small break. We've been working pretty hard."

"I'm cool with that," Naruto said and flipped through the notebook then closed it. "We managed to write six pages. That's good, right?"

"Yeah, considering that yesterday we wrote nothing." Sasuke stood up, stretched, and leaned on the counter.

"When are we going to start typing it up? I'm getting sick of having ink all over my hand." He held up an ink-stained hand to Sasuke.

"That's because you have the motor skills of a five year old who can't write without dragging his hand over what he wrote."

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Whatever. But when will we type it up?"

"When we've finished it."

"Ugh."

"Suck it up."

After a couple of minutes of making small talk, Sasuke walked to the living room, Naruto following. "We can continue working in here. I don't know about you, but those stools are doing nothing for my back." He rubbed the middle of his back with his left hand.

Naruto walked past Sasuke and launched himself onto the couch. He's been wanting to do that since they first arrived.

"Hey, careful!" Sasuke followed him closely. "This isn't a playground."

Naruto just grinned and settled back into the couch. "I say we make this break even longer. I'm not ready to get back to writing just yet."

Sasuke tossed him the notebook. "No. We need to finish this chapter. Then we can take another break."

Naruto ungracefully caught the notebook and scrunched his nose. "We've been working all day. I don't have anything left up here." He tapped his head.

"Not like you had anything up there to begin with." Sasuke sat down next to Naruto and brought up his legs to sit Indian style, his knee close to brushing Naruto's.

"Teme." Naruto stuck out his tongue and opened the notebook. "Fine. Now where did we last leave off..."

Hours passed, but neither man took notice of the time. They were on a roll, the words flowing smoothly off their pens. The promise of a break was long forgotten to Naruto; he didn't want to stop writing for the fear that the words would suddenly stop and then they would left in a rut once more.

Naruto would write a paragraph then Sasuke would read it, tweak it, and write another paragraph before the process would start over.

Around midnight- how they managed to write that late without taking notice of the time, no one knew- Naruto suppressed a yawn.

Neither man bothered to check the time yet.

Sasuke's eyes drooped as the words on the paper swam. Suddenly, both Sasuke Naruto were asleep like that. Naruto slumped down and his head fell on Sasuke's shoulder; Sasuke's head rested on top of Naruto's. The notebook fell on the floor forgotten for the time being.

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes he was aware of two things: one, he still felt sleepy and two, all he could see was the dark fabric of a t-shirt-_ Sasuke's t-shirt. _

Eyes widening, he slightly lifted his head up. Sasuke was peacefully sleeping with his face lightly pressed into Naruto's hair. He had an arm loosely wrapped around Naruto's torso and their legs were tangled.

Naruto realized he also had an arm around Sasuke's torso.

_How the hell can we both fit laying down on the couch? How did we even end up like this? _was the first thing he thought. His second was, _not gonna lie, this is pretty comfortable. Wait, what the fuck?_

It was still dark out meaning that they must have only fallen asleep for a few, short hours.

Sasuke slightly stirred in his sleep and Naruto froze. _Fuck I need to make my escape. _Panicking, he carefully untangled their legs, withdrew his arm and slipped out from Sasuke's.

Standing up, he straightened out his clothes. He stared down at Sasuke for a moment to make sure the other man had woken up. "Shit, now what am I supposed to do?" Naruto whispered to himself as he bent down to pick up the notebook.

He flipped through what they had written and set it on the coffee table. He rubbed the back of his neck. It wasn't like he could leave. There was no way in hell he was walking home in the dark and he wasn't going to wake up Sasuke to drive him home.

He took his phone out of his pocket to check the time. 3:27am. Damn, he had stayed over way longer than he planned. He was lucky he had nothing else going on that night.

He slipped his phone back in his pocket and frowned. What was he supposed to do? Awkwardly wait for Sasuke to wake up? It was his only option, he supposed.

Naruto sighed in relief that he had been the first one to wake up. If Sasuke had woken up first...well, who's to tell what would have happened? Perhaps he would have played it off cool like Naruto. Or not. He frowned at the thought.

Naruto sat down on the ouch adjacent to the one Sasuke was on. Looking over at Sasuke's sleeping form, Naruto could tell that the raven wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon.

He was stranded at Sasuke's for the time being. Cool. It'd be a funny story to tell Kiba and Shikamaru.

His face turned red as he thought of how he had woken up. He'd definitely have to omit the part where he and Sasuke fell asleep on the same couch and somehow managed to cuddle each other in their sleep. He was still confused on how it happened. And he was sure a hell not mentioning it to Sasuke let alone Kiba or Shikamaru. Nope.

Naruto's face turned even brighter. It sounded like it was from a cliché romantic movie or novel. He wondered if Sasuke had even written anything like that.

Folding his hands behind his head, his leaned back and closed his eyes. And tried his very hardest to push down a very familiar feeling.

* * *

"Dobe. Wake up, dobe. Hey, dobe!"

Naruto groaned and swatted at the air. "Let me sleep, Iruka. Normal people don't get up at 6am." He yelped and his eyes snapped opened when he his side was suddenly jabbed. He fell off the couch and looked up to see an amused Sasuke.

"We both fell asleep last night, dobe," Sasuke said.

Naruto tried to sound surprised. "We did?" he stood up and brushed of his wrinkled clothing.

"Yeah." Sasuke paused. "I don't know how you ended up on that couch, though. I remember we were both sitting on the same couch."

Naruto casually shrugged. "Sometimes I sleepwalk."

Sasuke nodded. "I can take you home now, if you want. We can take the day off today since we stayed up so late last night writing."

"Yeah, sure." Naruto grabbed his jacket and slipped it on.

The car ride to Naruto's apartment was quiet. Both men were still tired from staying up late last night. When they arrived to Naruto's apartment complex, Naruto thanked Sasuke before hurrying inside. He wanted to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, it seemed his friends had other plans. When he unlocked his apartment, Kiba and Shikamaru were lounging on his couch.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked. He knew Shikamaru had a key to his apartment so he wasn't too surprised to find them here(they'd done it before), but he'd rather not have to answer the inevitable question they'd ask him- where were _you_?

"I told you he forgot," Kiba said to Shikamaru. "You're the one who invited us to come over this morning yesterday. Bro day, remember?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Where exactly were you?"

"Um, no where in particular," Naruto said and sheepishly smiled.

Kiba immediately came up to Naruto and inspected him. "Wrinkled clothes, bed hair," Kiba paused to sniff the air, "and is that a hint of perfume I smell? Dude, did yu get laid last night?"

"No, that's not-" Kiba cut him off.

"Dude, you _so _got laid last night. Who was it?"

"Kiba I did not get laid last night," Naruto firmly said. "I was at Sasuke's writing and we both fell asleep and that's it."

Kiba's eyes widened. "You went to Sasuke's?"

"Yeah?" Naruto shrugged. "What's wrong with that? We were just working on our novel. You know, the thing we're being paid to write."

"You just worked on our novel?" Kiba raised both his eyebrows. "Did anything happen?"

Naruto tried his best not to show any reaction or else Kiba would suspect something did happen, but his face flushed.

"Oh my god, something did happen! I hit the bulls eye!"

"Shut up, Kiba. Nothing happened you moron." Naruto ran a hand through his hair. "I'm tired and want to sleep, do you mind if we reschedule our bro day?"

Shikamaru and Kiba exchanged glances. "Whatever," Shikamaru said and stood up. "Just text me."

"Yeah, will do." Naruto saw them out. Part of him felt bad for forgetting about their bro day- which was as stupid as it sounded-, but the other part of him was too tired to care.

After plugging in his phone, Naruto collapsed on his bed. Crawling under his covers, he quickly fell asleep.

* * *

"Hm, interesting," Sakura said and leaned on the kitchen counter, pressing her phone to her ear. "I always miss everything when I'm gone."

"I didn't want to mention it to him. It would have been awkward." It was Sasuke on the other line. "We've been enemies for so long it...oh I don't know!"

Sakura suppressed her giggle. It was always funny to hear Sasuke get flustered. He was generally the type who hid his emotions pretty well. Expect when he talked to her. "Remember what I told you in high school."

Sasuke groaned. "You wouldn't let me nor Naruto forget. So yes, I do."

"What'd I tell you?"

"Okay, whatever, you were right. Can we get past that?"

"In a moment." Sakura grinned even though Sasuke couldn't see her. "_I told you so!_"

"Yeah, you sure did." Sasuke sighed. "But now what do I do?"

"How do you feel about him?"

"Like he's still the same annoying guy from high school but slightly more mature now."

"Okay, you described him. Now how do you feel about him?"

"I don't know."

"Very helpful, Sasuke."

"Don't get sassy with me, Sakura. I...I don't know. I honestly don't."

"Hm." Sakura thought for a moment. "I'd see how it goes. Get closer to him, you know? It shouldn't be that hard since you two have been nearly inseparable these past two months."

"What do you mean inseparable? We've been working on a novel for crying out loud."

"I know, I know. I'm merely pointing out that you two have been spending a lot of time together. Use it to your advantage."

"You're making it sound like I'm interested in him romantically."

"Are you?"

"No...I mean, I don't know. Every time I look at him, I see that irritating guy from high school who I wanted to punch. But...he's different, too." Sasuke sighed. "This is so confusing."

Sakura smiled. "You'll figure it out, don't worry."

"Thanks, Sakura."

"Don't mention it. Talk to you later, Sasuke."

"Bye."

Sakura hung up. She widely smiled to herself. She had a good feeling about this.

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry this chapter is late! I've been busy these last few weeks and finally got time this weekend to write. ****This chapter was also kind of all over the place. Whoops. It's currently midnight where I am and I'm very tired. I just want to get a chapter out to you lovely people. **

**Please leave a review! Feedback on the chapter would be much appreciated. I absolutely love hearing what you guys think! :)**

**Thank you for reading.**

**Until next time, darlings,**

**-Bluekit5**


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